Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 | JPL Logo |
|  | The JPL complex in Pasadena, Ca. Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. |
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 | The control room in JPL Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech. |
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The
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (
JPL), in
La Cañada Flintridge, near
Los Angeles, California, USA, builds and operates unmanned spacecraft for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (
NASA). JPL is a federally funded research and development center (
FFRDC) managed and operated by
Caltech under a contract with NASA. JPL-run projects include the
Galileo Jupiter mission and the
Mars rovers, including the
1997 Mars Pathfinder and the twin
2003 Mars Exploration Rovers. To date, JPL has sent unmanned missions to every
planet except
Pluto. In addition, JPL has also done extensive mapping missions of the
Earth. JPL also manages the world-wide
Deep Space Network, with facilities in
California's
Mojave Desert, in
Spain near
Madrid and in
Australia near
Canberra.
Almost all of the 177 acre (0.7 km²) of the U.S. Government/NASA owned property that makes up the JPL campus is actually located in the city of
La Cañada Flintridge, California, but the JPL main gate and several buildings are in
Pasadena, so it maintains a Pasadena address (4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109). There are approximately 5,000 full-time Caltech employees, and typically a few thousand additional contractors work there on any given day. NASA also has a resident office at the facility staffed by federal managers who oversee JPL's activities and work for NASA. There are also some
Caltech graduate students, college student interns and co-op students. The lab has an open house once a year on a Saturday and Sunday in May, when the public is invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology. More limited private tours are also available throughout the year if scheduled well in advance. Thousands of schoolchildren from around Southern California and elsewhere visit the lab every year.
JPL dates back to the
1930s, when
Caltech professor
Theodore von Kármán began running rocket propulsion experiments on the site. JPL was co-founded with rocket scientist
Jack Parsons, which has led some to affectionately refer to it as the "Jack Parsons Lab." (Despite its name, JPL had not been concerned with work on turbojets or other air-breathing
jet engines:
Rocket engines were often called "jets" or "ramjets" before the mid-
1940s.) During
World War II, the
United States Army Air Forces asked JPL to analyze the
V2 rockets that were developed by
Nazi Germany, as well as work on other projects for the war effort. From this study, JPL developed the
Corporal missile which was used in the
Korean War. This project later evolved into the
Sergeant Rocket until it was discontinued in
1958.
By 1958, JPL's government affiliation was transferred to the new
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and JPL's current mission of unmanned planetary exploration began. JPL retained its original name after the transition, even though most research into jet propulsion ceased after 1958. In 1995 JPL once again got involved in propulsion design, issuing a contract to
Wickman Spacecraft and Propulsion Company to develop a rocket engine and jet engine that could directly burn the Martian atmosphere of carbon dioxide.
In addition to its government work, JPL has also assisted the nearby motion picture and television industries, by advising them about scientific accuracy in their productions. Science-fiction shows advised by JPL include
Babylon 5 and its sequel series
Crusade.
The
Space Flight Operations Facility and
Twenty-five-foot Space Simulator are designated
National Historic Landmarks.
Listed chronologically, the following significant missions were partially sponsored by JPL. See
this page for a complete list of missions.
*
Explorer program*
Mariner program*
Pioneer 3 + 4*
Viking program*
Voyager program*
Magellan probe*
Galileo probe*
Deep Space 1 +
2*
Mars Global Surveyor*
Cassini-Huygens*
Stardust*
Mars Odyssey*
Mars Pathfinder*
Mars Exploration Rover Mission*
Spitzer Space Telescope*
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter* Dr.
Theodore von Kármán, 1938 – 1944
* Dr.
Frank Malina, 1944 – 1946
* Dr.
Louis Dunn, 1946 – October 1, 1954
* Dr.
William H. Pickering, October 1, 1954 – March 31, 1976
* Dr.
Bruce C. Murray, April 1, 1976 – June 30, 1982
* Dr.
Lew Allen, Jr., July 22, 1982 – December 31, 1990
* Dr.
Edward C. Stone, January 1, 1991 – April 30, 2001
* Dr.
Charles Elachi, May 1, 2001 – Present
*
JPL's official site
